Pope faces uphill challenge in trying to resurrect Latin

VATICAN CITY — Reviving a long-dead language might sound like a tall order for a church that’s already weakened by widespread secularization and the fallout from decades of a painful child abuse scandal.

But Pope Benedict XVI seems convinced that revitalizing the study and use of Latin among priests and seminarians is a necessary step for the church’s future.

On Saturday (Nov. 10), Benedict established a “Pontifical Academy of Latinity” tasked with “promoting the use of Latin” inside and outside the Catholic Church.

Ever since its earliest days, the church “has spoken and prayed in all the languages of humanity,” the pope wrote in the letter announcing the creation of the new Vatican department....